Want to save up to $200 a year in a few simple steps?
The government says the average U.S. household spends close to $2,000 on energy costs every year. Up to 10% of that bill is paying for appliances and gadgets that are left plugged in when not in use.
Energy provider First Energy says the average home uses 24 electrical products. The simplest step is to just turn them off when not in use. Use a power strip as central turning off point when you are done using equipment. That way it’s easy to check what’s still plugged in.
Charging the batteries for phones, computers and other devices takes a lot of juice as well. Unplug those chargers when they are not in use.
Set your computer to go into “sleep mode” after a period of inactivity. That way you won’t accidentally walk off and leave it running for hours. A screen saver is not the same as “sleep mode.” If your computer, TV or printer offers power management features, use them. It’s worth the effort. According to the Department of Energy, a cable box with a DVR that’s left on all the time can cost you almost $45 extra a year. Making sure your computer is off or in sleep mode can put $100 back in your pocket.
Video game consoles are another power sucker, so make sure they are turned off when not in use. If might take a little longer to get that game of “Halo” going, but think of all the nice stuff you can buy with a couple of hundred extra dollars in your pocket.
Very good and necessary article for all of us. We’ve all been concerned only about producing and consuming more all the time! Little do we realize that the need of the hour is conserving. In fact, it is alwys so! My guestimate is, if we consider all wastages during production, storage, transport, and consumption, it would work out to 50% or even more. Unfortunately,it’s so not only in the developed countries, but also in developing and poor countries of Asia and Africa too!
For me, conservation is actually much more than production if we take the envoronmental cost also into account!
very good practical suggestions for saving energy.
This is great advice. I have started using the sleep mode when I am not active on the computer. I also started to unplug kitchen devices such as the coffee maker, table top oven and so on when not in use. It does save electricity. Thanks for the valuable advice.
I am sorry but I call bogus on most of this one. Most of those devices when off really use very little electricity, so unplugging them, IMHO, is a waste of time. Remember that was a government agency and they did say UP TO 10%, not 10% for everyone. If you have a lot of older devices perhaps it would approach 10% but not for most of use, again IMHO.
Sleep mode on your computer, now that one is a different matter. I feel that is a good idea as long as you make sure your automatic backup, your patching, and anti-virus software can all wake it up to do their work in the middle of the night. In fact if you have a laptop set it to go to sleep when you close it then close when you are done.